Flavor Wave’s single, “The Optimist,” arrived less like a declaration and more like someone tentatively drawing back a dusty curtain on a grey afternoon. From West Chester, PA, these five lifelong friends – Kyle Loedel (vocals, lyrics), Matthew Stretch (lead guitar), Patrick Blair (rhythm guitar), Noah Montgomery (bass), and Joshua Speaker (performer/drums) – typically tread alternative rock paths nodding to influences like The Strokes....

Listening to TaniA Kyllikki’s new single, “I PROMISE (I'll Wait For You)”, is like stumbling upon a vow carved into the stone of a forgotten chapel. This is an epic power ballad, a genre that too often inflates emotion into melodrama, but Kyllikki, alongside producer Rynellton, constructs something with a different kind of gravity. It is an architectural feat, built from piano chords that...